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Monthly Archives: April 2012

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It didn’t matter that I had probably lost any early season fitness previously gained by spending too much free time building this bike in April. It didn’t matter that I had a hectic, six-cities-in-four-days, trip to the west coast last week, and arrived home last night a little knackered. It didn’t matter that today’s wind would quickly drain the energy from my legs. I’ve got a new bike, a publicly stated goal to do some longer rides, and it was time to shut up and pedal.

Today, five hours was long. The ride started directly south, and for almost two hours, the noise of the constant headwind was like the roar of a locomotive. No-stripe, rural county roads guided me over small rolling hills, into more urban surroundings, and finally into the Denton square. The annual jazz festival was in full swing. It would have been nice to stay, but I had many more miles in front of me. So I turned east and headed over to the southern limit of the Greenbelt trail to start the offroad portion of the outing. It’s butterfly season down on the Greenbelt Trail. Thousands of them would be lounging on the trail, until I’d get near. Then they’d take flight, let me by, and (I think) land to continue their lounging. It was as if I was being escorted, encased in a continuous wave of butterflies. The trail ends at the eastern limit of the Lake Ray Roberts Dam. I turned left to begin the westward portion of my circuit, and rode across the top of the dam. The late morning sun was beginning to turn up the heat, and the blue lake water was inviting, but my sights were on Sanger. Gusty cross winds, with no rhythm, forced frequent steering adjustments, and fatigue joined my journey. One more crossing of IH-35, one more patch of gravel, and one more short section of direct headwind, and the loop was completed.

Today, a five-hour ride was long, but I want to change what “long” means. Making that happen shouldn’t be too hard if I’ll just shut up and pedal.

I spent 5.5 hours on the Kogswell fixed wheel bike this weekend. It was either because I’m a poor bicycle mechanic, made a mistake, had to order one more part to finish the project bike build, and I’m highly frustrated because I have to wait even longer before I can ride my new bike.

Or.

My excursions into the country side on fixed wheel were a gesture of solidarity and celebration with my friend Steve A who is now the proud owner of a new fixed wheel bicycle, with 3 speeds.

Let’s say it’s the latter, because the first option makes me sound like an incompetent whiner.

Because I figure “If I can do, it is highly likely that everyone else has already mastered it”, I rarely ever post anything resembling a “how to” guide. But Doug asked this question in the comments of my last blog post…

So, what method do you use to get the labeling off the rear derailleur? I’ve been wanting to remove the “Ultegra” from my Ellis derailleur. Wasn’t sure how to do it.

Well, Doug, I’m not sure how to do it either. I think I read somewhere about the stuff you see in the photo above, found it in a hardware store, and tried using it on something. It seems to be useful stuff for very light polishing. For example, I peeled the VO sticker off my fenders and a sticky residue was left over. I took the fuzzy stuff and polished it right off. When I marked my fenders with a Sharpie and had a few stray marks to clean up, the fuzzy stuff performed well again.

So why do I hesitate to answer Doug’s question with authority? Shimano component logos seem to be much more stubborn. If you examine the final results of my “105” removal closely, you’d see that a vague “shadow” (I’ll call it) is still slightly visible. You’d also see a difference in the finish in the area I did most of the rubbing as compared to the rest of the part. Maybe Shimano has some kind of clear coat finish on their shiney components or something. It took probably 20-30 minutes of consistent rubbing to get to what I deemed “done”. A lot more work than the two examples provided above.

I’m not sure that I’d recommend using this same approach to everyone. But for me the results were satisfactory. From 5-6 feet away, it looks like a shiny label-less component. Since my bike is never again (Sorry, Mitch) going to look like a showpiece, that totally works for me. But it might not work for you. Anyone out there got any other suggestions to help me and Doug with future logo removal projects?

Still building and tweaking, but couldn’t wait any longer to get a feel for the new ride. Not enough time in the saddle yet to analyze and report back. For now I’ll just say a lot of grinning was going on.

There hasn’t been much progress on the rando bike project. At least not much you can see. I did close the deal on the A. Homer Hilsen frameset, and shipped it out this morning. The country bike from rural northwest Denton County, Texas is on his way to Brooklyn, New York. I reckon that’ll be quite a change. I also made some refinements to my Berthoud handlebar bag so it will work better with Mitch’s custom rack.

But I need a drivetrain. Due to a variety of reasons, some important parts haven’t yet arrived. I’m waiting on a rear wheel, bottom bracket, and new 8-spd cassette. Oh yeah, and brakes from a bike my brother is borrowing. Hopefully, everything I need will be here next week.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to strike what might be called a build balance. While waiting for parts, I want to get as much done as I can (to save time later), without having to disassemble something because I went out of sequence or I have stuff in the way. Normally, the water bottle cage is about the last thing I attach, but there it is (probably in the way).

I did a little more tinkering after the photo was taken. Since downtube shifters and both derailleurs are on, I added shift cables. Then I explored a couple of options for adding a little padding under my cloth outer layer bar tape (no, not yet wrapped). Finally, I polished off the “Shimano 105” label from my rear derailleur. Maybe I’ll go out and take those stubborn decals off my front wheel.

I hope those last parts get here soon, before I cross the line between progress and problematic.

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Quote Corner

"A bike ride immerses us in the world around us, and in that moment life is just as it should be." - Mary Gersema

"Ride awake." - Association of Caffeinated Wheelmen

“As a recreation, [cycling] is in a class by itself, combining physical and intellectual pleasures in whatever proportions the cyclist himself may prefer. At one end of the scale, cycling is a real he-man’s sport; at the other it is the ideal recreation for the elderly philosopher who loves to potter around the country lanes.” - from the book “Cycling,” by R.C. Shaw, 1953.

"Instant coffee should only be sold in joke shops, next to the decaf."
- @tantandaylor on instagram

"The solution is to ride, and to do it on a bike you love."
- Tim Smith